CEADS is deploying the Common European Agricultural Data Space.
It provides a secure, trusted, and interoperable environment for data sharing across Europe’s agri-food sector, supporting economic performance, environmental sustainability, and societal benefits while upholding privacy, security, and ethical standards.
Building on the AgriDataSpace and Data Space Support Centre foundations, CEADS turns the vision of a European agricultural data space into practice. Through three yearly development cycles, Deploy, Enlarge, and Scale, the initiative co-designs, implements, tests, and validates solutions with stakeholders in real-world contexts. This iterative approach ensures that the data space grows inclusively and delivers lasting impact.
| CEADS Basic Info | |
| Call: | DIGITAL-2024-CLOUD-DATA-AI-06 |
| Topic: | DIGITAL-2024-CLOUD-DATA-AI-06-AGRISPACE |
| Type of action: | DIGITAL Simple Grants |
| GA No. | 101195295 |
| Starting Date: | 1 April 2025 |
| Ending Date: | 31 March 2028 |
| Duration: | 36 Months |
Ambition:
CEADS strengthens Europe’s agricultural transformation by unlocking the value of data. Aligned with the Green Deal, the Data Act, the Data Governance Act, and the Common Agricultural Policy, CEADS promotes secure and fair data exchange. By doing so, it empowers farmers, policymakers, researchers, and businesses to innovate, improve competitiveness, and advance sustainability across European agriculture.
Challenges
Agriculture in Europe is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, but the sector faces critical barriers that hinder the full potential of data-driven innovation. Smart machines, sensors, and digital platforms generate vast amounts of agricultural data, yet much of it remains underused, fragmented, or locked in silos.
Fragmented Data Landscape
Agricultural data is scattered across multiple platforms and stakeholders, creating interoperability issues and vendor lock-in. Farmers are reluctant to share data due to unclear benefits and risks of losing control.
Lack of Trust and Governance
Uncertainty about data ownership, usage rights, and fair access reduces confidence among farmers and agri-businesses. Without clear governance models and contractual frameworks, participation in data spaces remains limited.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Barriers
Data privacy, protection, and compliance with GDPR, the Data Act, and the Data Governance Act are complex and resource-intensive. Many actors, especially SMEs, struggle to navigate legal frameworks and ensure secure data handling.
Digital Divide and Unequal Access
While larger agri-businesses increasingly use advanced tools, small and medium-sized farms often lack the resources, infrastructure, or digital skills to participate effectively in data spaces, widening the gap in competitiveness.
Slow Consensus Across Stakeholders
Despite preparatory efforts (e.g., AgriDataSpace), reaching agreement among diverse actors, farmers, cooperatives, tech providers, policymakers, and researchers, remains a lengthy process. This slows progress toward a unified European agricultural data space.
CEADS Objectives
1
Deploy a secure and trusted Common European Agricultural Data Space by integrating technical infrastructure, governance, and business models to facilitate interoperable and fair data sharing across the agri-food sector.
2
Empower farmers, SMEs, cooperatives, researchers, and public administrations with timely, reliable, and FAIR data to improve decision-making, competitiveness, and sustainability.
3
Validate CEADS through 8 core Use Cases and at least one Open Call for new partners and additional Use Cases, ensuring broad stakeholder participation from all EU Member States.
4
Foster data interoperability and portability across platforms by aligning with EU frameworks (Data Act, Data Governance Act, High Value Data Sets, AI Act) and collaborating with other sectoral data spaces and the DSSC.
5
Design and implement robust governance, trust, and consent mechanisms, ensuring data sovereignty, ethical use, and balanced value creation for all stakeholders.
6
Develop and test sustainable business models for agricultural data sharing, including monetization opportunities for data rights holders and equitable benefits for users.
7
Strengthen Europe’s policy monitoring and evaluation capacities by linking agricultural data spaces with CAP implementation, sustainability targets, and policy-driven innovation.
8
Build a vibrant, EU-wide ecosystem of data providers, intermediaries, and users by engaging stakeholders in co-design, capacity building, training, and awareness activities, creating long-term trust and adoption.
36 Partners / 15 Countries
36 partners from 15 EU countries, coordinated by the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (EV ILVO, Belgium), working together to create a truly European agricultural data space.
